


Love and War

by legallyblack



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Heartbreak, kinda sad, pre romione, romione, we forgive you ron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28620648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legallyblack/pseuds/legallyblack
Summary: "Because," she thought sadly. "When Harry was off living the life of a teen savior, it was always her and Ron."Always Ron(a.k.a The day that led to Hermione asking Cormac to the ball. Set in 6th year.)
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Kudos: 10





	Love and War

**Author's Note:**

> Hi lovelies! So in this longer installment of Bushy Hair and Bright Mind, we see exactly how Hermione felt about the Lavender/Ron situation. I have a strong feeling that Hermione wasn't as non-chalant as she let on.

_ December 18th, 1996 _

_ 6:25 p.m. _

Hermione was used to walking alone. For the first 11 years of her life, it was all she knew. Even when she had come to Hogwarts and met Harry and Ron, her increasingly complicated class schedules meant that she was forced to spend countless passing periods trying to navigate the magical grounds. Then there were the arguments, mostly started by Ron and then piggybacked by Harry, in which the two of them would spend very little time talking to her. The last one had been 3 years ago in 3rd year, with the stupid Scabbers incident. That being said, as the three had grown together, she found that they were becoming more and more inseparable.

She was used to walking alone, but it had still hurt immensely when Harry had left her alone in the Great Hall to go kiss up to Slughorn. Teacher discourse was something that the two of them had always done together, but apparently not this year.

She knew why he was avoiding her. He was trying to stay impartial in the brewing coldness between her and Ron.

_ Ron. _

She turned to her left, where Ron was eating. Well, he’d finished dinner about 10 minutes ago. He was eating...Lavender Brown’s face.

_ This was the same Lavender Brown who’d called Ron a pig in 2nd year. Why was she just now realizing how great he was? And why why why did Ron fancy her? She was an idiot, and, while Hermione was never too into her looks, she truly believed that she could compete in that department. So what was it about Lavender? _

Hermione grimaced at the horrific display in front of her, not knowing whether she was more disgusted or heartbroken. For the sake of her dignity she decided on disgust, and checked her watch. Dinner was almost over. This was confirmed by the fact that she, Ron, Lavender, and Neville were the only ones left at the Gryffindor table.

She sighed and stood, making her way out of the Hall, when a voice called her name. “Hermione, wait up!” It was Neville, desperately stuffing things into his schoolbag in an attempt to catch up to her. “Hi Neville.” She greeted him.

“Hey. I sort of zoned out at Dinner, but I’ve been meaning to ask- Are you ok? You and Ron haven’t been talking again, and you just seem, er- sad...all the time.”

Hermione stopped in her tracks. Merlin, was she really that obvious? She thought these past few weeks that she’d been brooding in silence, not for the whole school to see. She turned to Neville. “I’m fine, Nev. Thanks for asking. Now if you'll excuse me I’ve got to go start on Defense Against the Dark Arts homework. Professor Snape’s assigned us a ton.” And with that she sped off towards the library, stopping only outside the entrance to catch her breath.

She’d lied to Neville. She’d already completed her homework for the next week. That being said, studying was proven to be her single most effective distraction. She stepped into the deserted library and made her way to her favorite nook. There she settled down with her Potions book. The fact that Harry was  _ still _ top of that class enraged her to no end. For the first time since she’d met him Hermione was genuinely angered by his success.  _ It’s not even his brain, it’s that stupid potions book,  _ she thought bitterly as she flipped through the pages much too harshly. She still had yet to find a single mention of the Half Blood Prince anywhere, and she had a feeling that this small failure was a considerable factor in her sour mood. Harry was so preoccupied by the Prince and Malfoy’s supposed allegiance to Voldemort, that even though he himself was not currently mad at her, he still wasn’t able to spend much time with her.

“Well hello there, Granger.”

Her deep thoughts were interrupted by a suave voice. She looked up abruptly and quickly scoffed in disgust.  _ Cormac. _ Why on earth was he in the library? She wouldn’t have been surprised if he was entirely illiterate. 

“Hello Cormac. Or Mclaggen since you seem keen on never using my first name.” She said in annoyance. He seemed to take this statement entirely out of context, because he grinned and sat on the bench opposite her, much to her utter distaste.

“Oh, first name basis, I see. Well if you say so,  _ Hermione. _ ” He put extra enunciation on her name. She absolutely hated it. Glaring at him, she lowered her voice. “Look Mclaggen. I’ve got a lot to study for and would really appreciate it if you left me alone.*

He put on a look of mock offense. “Hold on there, Granger. I was just trying to get to know you. You seem-” 

He roamed his eyes up and down at her before continuing.

“-lovely. That is, unless you have other ways of getting to know potential...friends?”

Hermione scoffed again, this time standing up and gathering her things. “You’re vile, Cormac.” He only looked amused, which angered her even more. “Why so touchy? How’s this? My dad, he’s rich. Super rich, actually. We can take one of our boats out in Fife sometime. Got any plans for the break?”

She shook her head. “No, I'd rather not, but thanks for the invitation.” She growled through her teeth. And with that, she jogged out of the library.

“God, he’s insufferable!” She grumbled as she made her way to the Gryffindor tower. Before she could recite the password to the Fat Lady, a familiar voice interjected, saying it instead.

“Goldilocks.”

She wheeled around. “Harry! Any luck with Slughorn?” She couldn’t keep the edge out of her voice. Harry seemed not to notice this, because he cheerfully responded, “Not much, but I think I’m really getting in his good graces.”

“And the good grades”, she mumbled under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing”, she smiled sweetly. “Let’s go inside.”

As they climbed into the portrait hole, they were instantly greeted by a mass of blonde hair. Lavender crashed into them, pulling Ron’s arm behind her. Ron seemed to grimace, but Hermione ignored it, her fury set on Lavender. “Oi, watch where you two are going, won’t you?” she snapped, causing Ron to look up in surprise. Lavender, on the other hand, looked offended. 

“Well,  _ excuse me _ , we were just going…” She giggled raucously, and the sound was nauseating. 

“...to spend some  _ alone _ time together. Weren’t we, Ron?” She made eye contact with Hermione the entire time. Hermione’s eyes narrowed, refusing to back down. She looked from Lavender to Ron, who’s ears had turned a violent scarlet shade. 

“Then I suppose you should get going, shouldn’t you? Although I hope you aren’t planning on doing anything productive, since Filch is making the rounds tonight. Then again, it’s you two. Shouldn’t have to worry about  _ you _ doing anything productive.” Hermione said viciously.

“Hermione-” Harry warned.

She looked at Ron, expecting him to be angry at her jab. Instead, he looked perplexed. Lavender was appalled.

“Well. Someone put something rotten in Granger’s tea today, didn’t they? Let’s go, Won Won.” She said with a huff, pulling Ron out of the portrait hole with her. Before he was fully out, however, Ron quickly turned back, locking eyes with Hermione. “Sorry” he mumbled before disappearing into the hall.

“Er, Hermione? What was that?” Harry asked nervously.

Hermione smoothed down her robes with an exasperated sigh. “Nothing. Let’s work on homework.”

…

Sometimes she wondered why it couldn’t have been Harry. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with Harry? He instigated her less, had less of a temper, and was overall a more tolerable person. So, why wasn’t it Harry?

_ Because, _ she thought sadly. _ When Harry was off living the life of a teen savior, it was always her and Ron. It was Ron who still went to Hogsmeade with her, even when Harry couldn’t. It was Ron who would use some of the little money he had to buy her sour lollipops from Honeydukes (despite her constant protests), because he knew how much she liked them, but also knew that her parents didn’t approve of the high sugar content. It was Ron who, despite having no idea how to deal with crying girls, would always sit with her in the common room when she was upset. It was Ron who would always make sure she was eating when particularly nasty exam weeks were coming up and he knew she would be too busy studying to take care of herself. _

_ It was always Ron.  _

“Hey, do you understand the explanation on page 466 of the book?” Harry asked, startling her out of her reverie. “Oh. Yes. It’s about the ethics behind Confundus charms, and how Arsenius Jigger condemns its use in ‘non-authorial’ circumstances.”

“Right. Well, loads of help that’ll be. We all know Voldemort is known for his upright morals.” He retorted with a laugh.

They both rolled over in much needed giggles. She was reminded with a pang that Ron would have been the one to normally make that type of joke. After they had caught their breath, she looked around the common room. They were the only two left. Checking her watch, she was surprised to find that it was already 11:30 at night. “Hey, Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“Did Ron and Lavender ever come back to the tower? It’s almost midnight. Curfew was over an hour ago.”

Harry smirked. “As someone who’s been on multiple midnight adventures with us, I’m surprised you suddenly care about the curfew, Hermione.” She blushed. “Right, well we obviously know that Ronald isn’t doing anything useful. He’s probably been snogging her by the old witch statue all night.”

_ Or shagging her. Dear Merlin please don’t let him be shagging her. _

Harry seemed to read her mind. “Er...never thought we’d be talking about Ron like this, but they haven’t...you know… done it. He would have told me if they had.” Against her better judgement, Hermione gave an audible sigh of relief, one that caused Harry to grin beside her.

She leaned her head on his shoulder, watching the still roaring fireplace in silence. 

“Why can’t you two just make up? He said softly into the quiet space. Hermione shook her head. “I don’t even know what we’re fighting about, Harry. He’s just been an absolute arse lately and I have no idea why.”

Harry sighed. “I think...I think I might know.”

Hermione shot up. “What! How?”

Harry looked tentatively around the common room, then turned his eyes back to her. “Well er- a few weeks ago, Ron and I caught Ginny and Dean...snogging.” It was as if the thought of Ginny kissing anyone else made him physically ill.

She knew the feeling.

“Anyway, they got into a huge row, and it honestly got pretty heated. Ron called Ginny a Scarlet woman and Ginny poked at the fact that Ron had no...experience.” 

Hermione snorted. She could see where this was going.

“Ginny was pointing out how I had kissed Cho, and you- kissed Krum. And she went on and on about how Ron was the only one who hadn’t kissed anyone. He got extremely mad.”

“But when I kissed Krum it was only a peck! And I haven’t sent a letter to him in months, not after the Department of Mysteries!” It all made sense to her now. Ron was  _ jealous. _ Not only was he smitten by Lavender’s attention, but part of this was to get back at her!

Harry looked very much like he regretted telling her this information. “Ron doesn’t know that, Hermione. But this is good! Now you know, and you two can patch it up.”

But Hermione wasn’t having it. “It doesn’t justify the way he’s been treating me the past few weeks. And besides, who’s he to care if I kissed Krum? I don’t recall  _ Ron _ taking me to the Yule Ball.” she whispered. Harry raised an eyebrow. “So then why do you care so much if he kisses Lavender? He’s a free agent! His words.” 

Hermione huffed. “Well I would argue that there’s a huge difference between the friendly kiss I gave Viktor, and the way he’s been attacking her face. That’s the only reason…”

“...except for the fact that you fancy him.” Harry added abruptly. Hermione froze. “How..how did you-”

“Oh please, Mione,” he interrupted. “I see the way you look at him. No ‘friend’ gets  _ that _ upset over him kissing another girl. You’re not the only one who can sense heartbreak.”

She saw the look in his eyes as he said the word “heartbreak.” She immediately reached out and grabbed his arm. “Ginny’ll come around sooner or later, Harry.” Harry sighed, leaning back against the couch. “If I lived a semi-normal life I’d agree with you.” She smiled turning back to the warzone going on in her head.

She couldn’t stop thinking about Ron. Him knowing about Krum, his recent behavior, everything. She was torn between feelings of relief and rage. How could he be so daft? For what, his own pride? 

Hermione suddenly felt the need for air. She looked to her left, finding Harry dozed off on the couch. Packing up his school bag and her own, she quickly grabbed her wand and walked out of the portrait hole. According to her watch, it was midnight, which meant prefect duty was over, and Filch’s rounds were complete. Silently she stalked down the halls, needing nothing more than to be outside. She somehow found herself 10 minutes later at the Astronomy tower. 

She’d never been up here at night. It was quite nice. The crisp winter air nipped at her, numbing her fingers. She closed her eyes, recalling the few girly rom-coms that her mother had convinced her to watch over the breaks in an attempt to mother-daughter bond. She remembered laughing at the prettiness of teenage girls, commenting on how she couldn’t possibly imagine wasting her time on boys, of all things.  _ This year had proven her utterly wrong so far _ , she thought bitterly.

There was a shuffling sound behind her, and her heart dropped. Clutching her wand, she took a deep breath and wheeled around, expecting some huge creature to jump out at her. There was nothing. 

“Who’s there,” she demanded. No response. Walking further into the darkness, she lit her wand.

“Lumos!”

She let out a scream that was quickly muffled by a gloved hand. She’d walked straight into Draco Malfoy.

“Shut up, Granger. Don’t want to wake up the whole castle.” He said, amused at her reaction.

She, however, was the opposite of entertained. “What the hell are you doing here, Malfoy?” she gasped, wrenching her arm from his grasp. Getting a good look at his face, she noticed how sunken in his eyes looked, and how abnormally thin he was. She wondered if this was a result of his supposed death eater status.

A look of panic crossed his eyes, before he pushed it down, returning to his cocky manor. “Going for a midnight stroll. And I could ask you the same question...what’s with the  _ mudblood _ on the roof?”

She winced at the word, curiosity replaced with loathing. “Don’t call me that.” she stated simply, before walking towards the staircase, her back turned. “Well, well, well. Looks like the mudblood’s upset that the Weasel finally has some arm candy. Personally I think Lavender Brown could go for someone better, but as for Weasley’s pride, she’s definitely a step up from  _ you. _ It’s amusing, really, that you thought you stood a chance.”

“Shut up” Hermione whispered, tears threatening to spill. How on earth did  _ Draco _ know? Was it that obvious? 

“Honestly better off for you Granger. Weasley’ll likely end up just like the rest of his family. Poor, useless blood traitors. It’s quite a shame that even  _ he _ didn’t want you. What, with his family’s muggle loving tendencies and all. Quite embarrassing-”

Hermione blocked him out, wand gripped dangerously tight in her shaking hands. No. She couldn’t fight him. She was smarter than him, but they weren’t evenly matched in a duel. Besides, they were way past curfew. Mcgonagall would go mental if she found out.

“Screw you, Malfoy” She spat, before descending down the stairs.

She ran down the halls at lightning speed, afraid that Malfoy and his awful words would somehow follow her home. This walk was supposed to make her feel better, not crush her spirit further. Choking back sobs, she made her way back into the common room, seeing that Harry had at some point woken up and gone back to his dorm. As she made her way up the stairs to the girls dorm, she prayed to Merlin that Lavender wouldn’t be there.

_ But that would mean that she and Ron were still out together somewhere. _

Conflicted, Hermione opened the door to the dorm, heart sinking when she realized that both Ginny  _ and _ Parvati were sitting inside. They were talking with their heads down, whispering in hurried voices. Ginny gasped in relief when she noticed Hermione standing in the doorway. 

“Hermione! Oh thank Merlin you’re safe. We were worried sick. It’s past midnight!” Ginny, though one year below Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender, would spend most of her extra time in the 6th year girls dorm, due to a lack of 5th year girls in Gryffindor. 

“M’ fine”, Hermione mumbled, walking past the two other girls and sitting on the bed. Turning around to face them, she sighed. “I’m guessing Lavender’s still out?” Ginny and Parvati exchanged a look, Parvati looking extremely sheepish. She was Lavender’s best friend, it was no surprise that she felt awkward talking about her when she wasn’t around.

Ginny cleared her throat. “So, er- we were just talking about Slughorn’s ball. What we were wearing and such. I know you said you didn’t like any of the dresses you’d brought this year. I have this gorgeous dress that doesn’t suit me very well, but it would look great on you! You’ve got the- assets- to pull it off.” She said with a grin.

“Thanks Gin, but I don’t think I’m going after all. No date.”

“But you could always take-”

“I. Don’t. Have. A.  _ Date, _ Ginny.” Hermione repeated through gritted teeth, looking pointedly at Lavender’s bed.

Parvati suddenly got up, clearing her throat. “Right. I’m going to go sit by the fire. It’s quite….cold… in here.” And with that, she backed out of the room, leaving Ginny and Hermione.

Suddenly, an idea hit her. It was an awful one which she would thoroughly loathe, but it would be great...revenge.

“I can take Cormac!”

Ginny looked at her as if she’d spoken in a different language. “ _ Cormac? _ You despise him! And for good reason, he’s awful!” Then, her eyes widened in understanding.

“It’s to make Ron jealous, isn’t it?”

Hermione nodded. Ginny groaned in frustration. “Hermione, you have to get over my git brother until he comes to his senses! 

“Oh, like you ‘got over’ Harry after 1st year?” Hermione fired back.

“I’m dating Dean!” 

“Yeah and you’re just about as happy as a Grindylow.” 

Ginny dismissed this remark. “I just don’t see why it has to be Cormac, that’s all.”

Hermione had her answer ready. “Well Ron hates him, for starters. Then there’s the fact that however annoying as he may be, he’s still a school jock. He has some credit.”

“But you could have any other guy in school!”

“Right, like I could do that.” 

“It’s not that hard.”

“Of course you can say that,” Hermione said, causing Ginny to stop in her tracks.

“What’d you mean by that?”

“Of course you can have any guy at school!”

“So can you-”

“No! No I can’t! You’re one of the prettiest girls in this school, boys love you! You’re smart, you’re athletic, you have wit, and what do I have? Bushy hair and books? You don’t have to try to get guys to- to want to snog you senseless in the middle of a hallway, and not care who sees because he’s so happy to be with you!”

The conversations of the day were catching up with her, the self loathing she’d been feeling for so long finally hitting the surface.

“You don’t know what it’s like, Gin, to constantly sit on the sidelines watching everyone just do it so...easily. To never have boys like you, and then the one boy that you like, who you actually might have a chance with, makes it clear that he doesn't want you either!”

She sat on the bed, head in her hands, wishing for the entire year to be over. She felt Ginny’s hand on her shoulder.

“Look, Hermione. I know you won’t believe me, but you are  _ gorgeous. _ And so caring, and if Ron doesn’t want to see that then it’s not your problem, ok?”

Hermione sniffed. “I just don’t know why it has to be like this.”

“I know. But it’s going to be ok. Besides, you can’t cry now. We have to figure out how you’re going to ask Mclaggen to the dance.”

She looked up with a smile. “So you’re not going to judge me for stooping that low?

Ginny shrugged. “All’s fair in love and war.”


End file.
